Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES December 12, 2017 MEMBERS PRESENT: Paul Kirby, Chair, Dr. Jeremy Schiller, Mary Lauby, Nancy Crowder EXCUSED: Kerry Murphy, Beth Gerard, Council Liaison OTHERS PRESENT: Larry Ramdin, Health Agent, Suzanne Darmody, Public Health Nurse, Maureen Davis, Clerk of the Board, Katie Crane, SSU Public Health Nursing Student (interviewed Board members and observed meeting), Geri Yuhas, former nurse practitioner and friend of Nancy Crowder TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:05pm 2. Minutes of Last Meeting N. Crowder motioned to approve minutes. J. Schiller 2nd. All in (November 14, 2017) favor. Motion passed. 3. Chairperson Announcements Nancy Crowder will be resigning from the Board after the February meeting for personal reasons. P. Kirby thanked her for her service and wished her well. Dr. Kimberly Waller will hold off on her presentation until next month. 4. Monthly Reports-Updates a. Public Health A representative from GSK will speak at the Public Health Nurse’s Nurse’s Report meeting this month about the shingles vaccine. The shot is free at age 65. Schools are asking about getting Narcan. We could possibly purchase it through opioid reduction grants. Salem was the first police department to have officers carrying Narcan. Beginning in January, S. Darmody will go to the Council on Aging the 2nd Wednesday of the month for blood pressure screenings. Copy available at the BOH office. b. Health Agent’s L. Ramdin received an email from Mary Wheeler regarding the syringe Report exchange program. Healthy Streets is not advertising the program and they are starting slowly with house calls, etc. J. Schiller would like Mary to come to a meeting in January or February to get a baseline of the program. L. Ramdin will contact Mary to set up a time. Pilot money for the program has run out, but Governor Baker has earmarked money for syringe exchange programs. L. Ramdin will be on vacation for three weeks beginning on December 18th and returning on January 8th. Sharon in Peabody and Jeff from Swampscott will cover for emergencies in his absence. Full contact information for them will be provided to the Board.  New childhood lead poisoning regulations for rental properties. Blood levels have been reduced. Updated regulations were provided to the Board. P. Kirby will resend Kimberly Waller’s two presentations. Major changes to the Certificate of Fitness regulations are that every apartment must be inspected every three years. In the past, inspections were only required when a unit was vacated. Based on 9,700 rental units, the numbers work out to 37 inspections per day for the department. In fiscal year 2017 a new position of assistant building inspector/sanitarian was created and assigned to the building department. Training and skill sets required to conduct a housing inspection under the state sanitary code is completely different than those for a building inspection. N. Crowder asked if the inspections include owner-occupied properties. L. Ramdin said only for 3-families. If there are no issued, inspections in owner-occupied properties can go to every five years. Condos are not included. Air BnBs are supposed to get annual inspections. P. Kirby asked how we track the Air BnBs. L. Ramdin said online, but difficult to track. Pop-ups continue. Once vendors have a history of pop-ups and inspections and they do not have PHF, there is no need to inspect every pop-up. M. Lauby asked about the status of 62 on Wharf. L. Ramdin said David Bowie is sharing space and would like to have a shared kitchen. He has two heavy-duty kitchens. With shared kitchens, two people cannot occupy the same space at the same time. A person would like to open an alternative protein establishment, i.e. insects. L. Ramdin has researched extensively and sees no specific challenges with it. The department’s overtime budget is just for inspections. Copy available at the BOH office. c. Administrative N. Crowder asked about the low burial numbers in October compared to Report other months. M. Davis will investigate. Copy available at the BOH office. d. City Council Beth Gerard not present. Liaison Updates J. Schiller motioned to approve the reports. N. Crowder 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 5. Discussion of the Health With regard to the budget letter to the Mayor, P. Kirby said an inspector Department’s budget request for seems to be the top priority. next year – budget priorities for J. Schiller said the letter is to request more funding as the department is FY 19 under stress to meet demands. It is a compelling argument since food permits are up 700%. L. Ramdin pointed out that the court’s authority to put a problem property  in receivership is based on the Health Department’s information. If the landlord doesn’t respond, the court appoints a receiver to fix all the problems, then the property is sold. Usually happens quickly because the receiver gets paid first. P. Kirby will email changes to the budget letter and ask members for input. L. Ramdin said we should get the final letter in by the February meeting to give to the Mayor in February. 6. Board of Health program planning & city health status discussion a. Larry Ramdin – L. Ramdin gave a PowerPoint presentation of the role, function, authority Role, function, and scope of the Board of Health. He will send a copy to Board authority and members. scope of the DEP has final approval of changes. Board of Health It is always good to have a public hearing before voting on a regulation. There is a legal definition in state law regarding Health Dept. vs. Board of Health. It is found in MGL Chapter 111 where Board of Health and Health Department are defined. The Health Agent and staff implements Board decisions. 7. New Business / Scheduling of • Discussion of Sarah Corley’s community health report future agenda items • Kimberly Waller’s presentation • Beth Gerard – update on plastic bags • Opioid discussion • Mary Wheeler – February meeting? 8. MEETING ADJOURNED: N. Crowder motioned to adjourn the meeting. M. Lauby 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 8:55pm Respectfully submitted, Maureen Davis Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 7:00pm At City Hall Annex, 120 Washington Street, Room 313, Salem, MA